The veteran lawyer questioned why did Jaitley chose to sue Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and not others who targetted him, in the Delhi & District Cricket Association's corruption case.
For the second successive day on Tuesday, veteran lawyer Ram Jethmalani tore into the defence of Union finance minister Arun Jaitley.
The veteran lawyer questioned why did Jaitley chose to sue Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and not others who targetted him, in the Delhi & District Cricket Association's corruption case.
Jaitley in return explained why he decided to sue the Delhi CM and not the others who had targeted him. "Kejriwal has committed a serious act of libel and malicious also, by alleging that my wife and daughter are recipients and are linked to fake companies. It is not only false but taking public discourse to a very low level," he said.
Jaitley was then asked whether prime minister Narendra Modi had known that he was suing Kejriwal. Jaitley also seemed to have been unaware of former Indian captain Bishan Singh Bedi's complaint to the PM.
Asked for his reactions to the charges that Bedi had made in his complaint to the PM and whether he saw any truth in them, Jaitley stated that the charges had no truth.
As to the charge of conflict of interest cited in the said letter, he stated that "he had disengaged himself from DDCA related matters and had told secretaries and officials not to place any matter related to DDCA to him".
Jaitley was also asked if he had any personal enmity towards Bedi. He said: "I have no personal enmity with him. I do remember that he once contested the DDCA president post and lost it. He also campaigned against me actively in Lok Sabha elections. I made him chief coach of Delhi and still accord him due respect to him as a cricketer."
Jethmalani then turned his attention to Jaitley's statement that he had left DDCA in 2013 and was merely a Patron for a few months thereafter. Jethmalani asked him about the Articles of DDCA and what role was prescribed for a Patron, and also how many meetings had he attended as a Patron. Jaitley replied — one.
The cross examination is set to resume on May 15.
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